Salon.com > Universities

Should graduation ceremonies be multi-faith?

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:46:00 +0000

It’s graduation season, and as such a golden opportunity to observe the various ways religion is handled in American public life circa 2013.

A graduation is a momentous occasion for graduates and their families, and such a major rite of passage tends to evoke some kind of effort on the part of high school, college, and graduate school leaders (and commencement speakers) to reach for rhetorical profundity.

But what kind of profundity is acceptable in our pluralistic public space? Can a public high school organize a graduation service that appeals to religious themes? Can a religiously diverse private college invite a commencement speaker representing only one of the many religious traditions represented in the room? Or, given religious diversity, should schools try to maintain an air of resolute non-religiosity?

Why care about Cooper Union?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:32:00 +0000

Since Monday, eleven undergraduate students have expertly barricaded themselves inside the top floor of New York’s Cooper Union college. The meticulously planned occupation is a tuition fee protest: the prestigious school, known for its teaching in art and engineering, has for over a century offered free education to its students. However, university president Jhamshed Bharucha announced earlier this year that the school would begin charging tuition fees to graduate students.

As students at public institutions around the nation are crippled by student debt, why should anyone care about the introduction of fees for a small number of graduates at a prestigious, privately funded East Village school? I have, of course, begged my own question here: the only reason to care about the Cooper Union occupation is if it is about more than that. There's good reason to say that it is.

Universities dump Adidas over labor abuses

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Top universities are dumping sportswear company Adidas over labor rights abuses. As the Nation reported, "Within the last three weeks, Cornell University and Oberlin College both decided to sever ties with Adidas for its refusal to pay $1.8 million in stolen severance pay from 2,800 workers who sewed its products at an Indonesian factory called PT Kizone. Wisconsin's attorney general and Adidas are entangled in a lawsuit after the University of Wisconsin threatened similar action."

The German sports apparel giant has faced a worldwide slew of strikes and protests over sweatshop conditions, wages and worker treatment. "PT Kizone workers rallied in Jakarta to demand Adidas pay the $1.8 million in severance, just hours before three million Indonesian factory workers went on strike to protest sweatshop conditions," reported the Nation, adding: